Diversity in Club Med

Earlier this year, Heidi Kunkel, CEO South-East Asia and Pacific of Club Med, had a challenging initiation as she transitioned into her new job in Singapore from her role as President of North East Asia, Japan and Korea. “The [Japan] businesses were on a good path but [they] were then faced with the tsunami crisis. I left the team six weeks after the events in Japan and stepped into the role here.”

Under extraordinarily difficult circumstances, Kunkel says the teams in Club Med’s two Japanese resorts showed “resilience” and “a high level of solidarity”. Though a great distance from Fukushima, the resorts suffered power cuts and aftershocks from the earthquake but only a handful of the frontline staff chose to go home, while many others stayed to work.

During this difficult time, the Club Med management maintained clear and open communication with the teams in Japan. Kunkel says that there were regular meetings and daily updates with the frontline and back office employees as well as managers. Also, Kunkel personally visited the resorts to “reassure the teams”. At present, she says the resorts that were affected by the tsunami are doing well and business has stabilised.

A communicating diversity

Managing commercial offices as well as resorts in eight countries around the Asia- Pacific region makes communication crucial for Kunkel. She regularly communicates with her country managers or heads in the region through phone as well as video conferences. Face-to-face interaction is also essential as Kunkel frequently visits the various offices and resorts to meet key frontline employees and managers. “I like to think I am accessible. It is important no matter what your position that employees feel you are approachable and can speak to you about their concerns,” she says.

Diversity may be a mere catchphrase for many organisations, but Club Med walks the talk in its daily work operations. “Club Med is multicultural, we have around 30 to 40 different nationalities in one resort. Also, about 85% of our Asia-Pacific employees are from Asia while another 15% are from Europe, North America or South America,” she says.

In order to promote the multicultural environment, managers and employees are given specific training. As part of onboarding, the frontline and back office employees are trained to understand cultural diversity while managers go through ‘Multicultural Management’ training to help them manage their multicultural employees.

The diverse culture also makes a good business case for an organisation that caters to guests from all over the globe. Club Med employees are able to “welcome people in their own language to make them feel at home,” says Kunkel.

While the diverse culture is a plus point the Club Med’s brand also helps attract employees, says Kunkel. In fact, she says that the internationally recognised brand name was a major reason for her joining the company nine years ago. She says that part of her job is to meet with the teams and travel and given her penchant for travelling, she found it was a “great fit for me with the company.”

Moreover, she cites the option of mobility as well as “over a 100 different areas of jobs” helps attract and retain employees. “We have 80 resorts worldwide, so our employees have the option of mobility if they are interested. They get the opportunity to travel the world as they could be working one season in Bali and the next season in another resort.”

Spotting the Gentiles

In a competitive hospitality industry, attracting the right staff to fit in the organisational culture and retaining these employees is no easy feat. Despite its best efforts, Club Med has an attrition rate of about 10% in certain job functions.

Club Med has specific preferences when it comes to the types of employees that it wants. “We are looking for personalities who will be able to interact with people. The Club Med brand is about having fun and enjoying being with people so it is important that our people have these qualities,” she says.

Employees are divided into frontline staff or what the organisation refers to as Gentil Organisateurs (GOs), who look after guests, and Gentil Employés (GEs), who carry out other back office duties such as housekeeping and kitchen. Interestingly, enough, these “Gentile” terms (which means congenial) were introduced about 30 years ago by the organisation as a symbol of endearment, she says. The guests too are referred as Gentil membres (congenial member) or GMs.

Club Med offices and resorts have different generations of employees working in them but Kunkel says that there are more young people working as frontline staff in the resorts. In many ways, they fit the Club Med culture as they “love meeting other people, being with guests on a daily basis as well as learning new languages.” Also, working as a GO involves a lot of travelling every six or 12 months and older employees with families might not appreciate this, she adds. However, there are many employees who have been with the organisation for decades, she says.

Club Med has many strategies when it comes to staff retention, including learning and development programmes that provide employees with avenues for career progression.

The Key GO is one such staff training programme that helps identify high-potential employees in resorts and commercial offices. They are identified by their managers through a formal annual review by the HR and management teams. Subsequently a training plan is put in place for these individuals after assessing their strengths and weaknesses in order to further develop their skills in the short- and long-run, explains Kunkel.

As part of the training, they are sent to the Campus (a different resort is selected each year to host this), where 250 high-potential employees from the Asia-Pacific teams attend three weeks of training programmes like Master the managerial basics, Managing restaurant, and The PR job.

In addition, Club Med employees are also given secondment opportunities to develop their skills. In fact, HR keeps a regular rotation of almost 500 employees every six months. Moreover, the GOs can “continue in the same role or take on new responsibilities,” states Kunkel. Similarly, within the corporate offices, talented GOs can be transferred to another office, which also makes up an important aspect of internal promotions.

A rewarding culture

Besides career progression, Club Med employees are also recognised and rewarded for their hard work via other means. The organisation offers sales incentive schemes for its employees and bonus schemes for managers who have hit their performance targets.

In addition, employees are allowed to stay in any of the global resorts for a few weeks in a year. “They receive a number of weeks a year as an entitlement that they are able to enjoy with friends or family. It is a big incentive that people feel great appreciation for,” notes Kunkel.

The teams in the Asia-Pacific offices as well as the resorts have regular get-togethers for both business as well as pleasure. “We implemented a business update once a month. It is also an opportunity to relax and be informal,” she explains. The Singapore team has a TGIF meeting once a month – it includes themed food parties and is also an opportunity for the HR manager and operations manager to give business updates to their teams while other offices have similar parties. Kunkel says that she once made sushi for sushi-themed party while working in the Japan office.

“Happiness is part of who we are in Club Med. It is very important to bring this conviviality and happiness into our offices,” concludes Kunkel.